Falling Object 20

"Sister Ra, I'm done washing up. Let's head to the ruins."

Oshi returned to the tent carrying the washed stone pot and spoon, but she found neither of them. There was only a line of writing left in the sand.

Obe and I went to the ruins first. Rest at camp this morning, and think about what we should eat for lunch. —Ra

The handwriting was clear, neat, and elegant. Whoever had left the note had to be a beautiful woman, generous and forgiving.

Smack! The stone pot fell to the ground, and the spoon inside bounced out with it.

"Waaah! Sister Ra, don't leave me behind! QAQ"

After reading the note and realizing she had been abandoned alone, Oshi had a hard time accepting it.

We threw an awesome party. Guess who wasn't invited.jpg

"It had to be Obe's idea, that naturally evil Blue-haired girl! Damn it! Sister Ra~ My Sister Ra~ Waaaaah~"

Unwilling to accept reality, Oshi took advantage of there being no one around and began pacing, running, and rolling around on the beach without a shred of dignity...

a few moments later...

After committing a series of dignity-shattering acts without an audience, Oshi finally accepted the reality of being left behind. She lay on the beach like a lifeless salted fish, staring blankly at the sky.

"Staaare~~~~ Hm? What's that? A bird?"

With dead fish eyes, Oshi suddenly spotted a blurry figure moving above the clouds. Though the clouds obscured her view, the thing swayed back and forth—it was clearly alive.

The sight immediately revived her spirits, and with a salted... carp leap, she sprang to her feet.

"Hehe~ Looks like lunch is taken care of today. Watch me make a pot of 'Ono Bird Stewed with Mushrooms.' I'll definitely outdo that blue-haired shorty.

You dared to persuade Sister Ra to leave me here? At lunch, you can gnaw on whatever bird butts I leave behind~"

Wiping the corner of her mouth, Oshi aimed at the dark figure. Once it was directly above the island, she fired a full-powered Thunder Cannon at it.

She was not worried about blasting it into pieces. That figure looked rather large, and Oshi was nowhere near as powerful as Ra yet.

At most, I'll punch a hole in it. I can't let it get away... Oshi thought as she watched the swaying figure in the sky.

After searching from the air for a long time, Kaido finally locked onto an island below. But just as he was about to descend, he noticed a bolt of Golden Lightning tear through the clouds and shoot straight at him.

"Worororo~ Interesting!"

Rather than dodge, Kaido allowed the lightning to strike him. Then he dispersed his Flame Cloud and fell straight down.

BOOM!!!

The sound of a massive object hitting the ground rang out. Swathes of surrounding trees were flattened, the earth caved in, and dust shot dozens of meters into the air.

Kaido's enormous dragon body fell from above the clouds, making the small island seem as though it had suffered an earthquake. A tremendous shockwave instantly spread outward, knocking many of the island's animals unconscious with foam at their mouths.

"Guh... Looks like I shot down something incredible. I'm in trouble now."

Oshi, who had been squatting with her head covered, was also frightened by the shocking scene. The creature's size far exceeded her expectations, leaving her momentarily at a loss.

Knowing that she might have caused trouble, Oshi did not dare make any sudden moves and simply remained crouched there. Yet after waiting for quite some time, the thing still did not move.

My attack shouldn't have done much damage to something that big. Did I hit its head? Don't tell me it died from the fall...

Just as she gathered her courage and prepared to step closer to see what exactly she had shot down, a familiar voice reached her ears.

The voice, which normally sounded ethereal and pleasant, now carried an added sense of security that made people want to lose themselves in it.

"Oshi, are you alright?" Ra had rushed back at nearly her fastest speed.

"I'm fine, Sister Ra. Um, I think I accidentally shot down something strange."

The moment she saw Ra, Oshi seemed to find her backbone again.

"Hmph↓ You only know how to cause trouble for Big Sis all day long." Obe, who had arrived shortly afterward, mercilessly scolded her.

"I was thinking of giving you two something extra for lunch... Besides, you two left me here without saying a word. I was bored too, okay~" Oshi retorted guiltily.

"Alright, let's go take a look first. I can sense that dragon is still alive." Ra led the two of them toward where the dragon had fallen.

"Huh? So it really was a dragon? I thought I was seeing things.

I can't believe this world actually has dragons~ And judging by its shape, it should be an Eastern dragon. Could this be some kind of fantasy cultivation world?" Oshi's curiosity was piqued again.

"If this really were a fantasy world, that dragon wouldn't have been so easily shot down by you.

Anything connected to dragons in those worlds is never simple." Obe promptly poured cold water on her excitement.

"That's true~ And this dragon looks kind of weird too.

Hmm... How should I put it? It feels a little human-like. And those horns aren't right either. I remember one pair should grow forward..."

Oshi began critically examining Kaido, who lay in the distance.

"You'd better pray that dragon isn't transformed from a person. Otherwise, we'll be in trouble."

"Alright, we're here. It's up ahead. Be careful, everyone," Ra warned them.

As they spoke, the three of them came to within a dozen or so steps of the dragon's head.

"It really is huge when you get close~"

Oshi stepped forward to the dragon's head and gestured up and down. She discovered that her tiny body was only about as large as one of its teeth.

"Didn't you say it was alive, Sister Ra? Why isn't it moving at all? It's lying there like a dead fish."

"Oshi, be careful. Don't get so close!" Ra stepped forward, pulled Oshi behind her just as she was about to poke it, and warned her.

Ra's caution proved to be correct. The instant her words fell, the dragon's body suddenly began to glow, releasing a powerful burst that kicked up clouds of dust around it.

Ra immediately shielded the two little ones behind her, then condensed a barrier of divine power in front of them. Her gaze remained fixed on the center of the light.

A huge palm slammed down through the dust, causing another round of violent shaking.

Then a gigantic humanoid figure rose from the crater. It seemed capable of blotting out the sky, completely shrouding the three little ones.

"Damn, my head hurts... But I didn't die, huh~"

The massive figure rubbed his head, then looked down at the three little ones and said:

"Hey! You three little brats, you were the ones who attacked me just now, right? You did a pretty good job! Worororororo!"

The strange laughter made Oshi and Obe feel a little dizzy.

Once the dust fully cleared, the humanoid creature gradually revealed his true appearance—a young man with a pair of curved giant horns on his head, wearing a sleeveless jacket, carrying a black spiked club over his shoulder, and hanging a dark red sake gourd from his waist. His face alone could stop a child from crying at night...

The two little ones gaped in disbelief at the monster standing before them, who was as tall as a two-story building.

"So it really was a person transformed into one. He's way too tall!

Was that dragon language just now? It had such insane penetration!" Oshi said, releasing her hands from over her ears.

"Probably not. It sounded a bit like Japanese to me," Obe replied, shaking her head.

"This is Japanese. It looks like this place is very likely the world of some anime."

Seeing that the other party clearly did not look like a normal human yet spoke fluent Japanese, Ra roughly formed a guess.

"Sister Ra, you understand Japanese?" Oshi asked in surprise.

"I don't. I'm only comparing it against lines from Japanese films and shows I watched before to translate it, and I can roughly sense the emotions of other living creatures."

That was right. With this body's incredibly powerful memory, Ra was using all the Japanese works she had seen before as a vocabulary bank, translating the other party's words in real time as though she were holding an electronic dictionary.

"But we have a problem now. He seems to be asking whether we were the ones who attacked him."

Having understood the dangerous creature before her, Ra replied in halting Japanese with an apology:

"It was us. We, deeply apologize, for this."

Kaido looked at Ra, who was speaking in broken fragments of apology. Frowning, he impatiently interrupted her:

"Since you admit that you attacked me, I'll give you three choices now—either join me, defeat me, or... die here!"

Kaido swung his spiked club, smashing a huge crack into the ground beside him.

Faced with three little girls who could barely speak properly, the powerful man who had dominated the seas chose to extort them, using the industry-standard tactic of intimidation, threats, and inducement.

This world really wasn't gentle at all~

PS: Kaido was only twenty-seven in 1491. At this point, he was actually still a handsome young man with quite a good bearing. A few years later, before invading Wano Country, Teacher Kaido's looks would be at their peak—he was basically a charming, handsome older man.